For Johanna Marie Rose

I don’t feel like being

not remembered
she said and sighed
the past lies dead
and expertly dismembered
the lies are the realm
of the effortlessly bleeding
my eyes see the new
and are no longer pleading
I don’t feel like being
not remembered
music comes dressed
in my new mirror
where I choose
what I wear
and what notes are the bearer
of me in the now
a surprising ascender
I don’t feel like being

not remembered

THEN

when the now becomes then
that life of amends
dissolves in the arms of a woman
what she wanted she craved
what she got were the knaves
who confused the

sweet dreams of freedom
sex had it’s path
though tangled with wrath
it flowed like a fire undone
she loosened the wire

knotted and barbed
her inner and outer
the sweet and the sour
came close to the gods
in retreat
I will have you disbarred
she shouted unmarked
if you hurt me
meet me here on the ground
we will war face to face
leave the earth with no trace
of the thing that left me scarred
if it howls like the wind
it will enter my pen
live forever more on the page
what I had what I loved
what I was once part of
is forever now free of rage

NOTES

PROCRASTINATIN' LIMERICKS

there once was a hardened New Yorker
who’d found in a certain French quarter
a man of her liking
who struck her like lightning
and softened her heart in short order

there once was gal all American
who’d had an urge to travel again
she went off to Paris
not the least bit embarrassed
came home with a Brit and a wedding band

there once was a girl from Astoria
who longed for a certain euphoria
people started to say
she was very outre
until she gave them whatforia

there once was a lady in grey

who required a different shade

she thought it for pleasure
found she’d need it in leather
and soon whipped up fifty handmade

there once was a songwriter from Texas

too sweet to ever perplex us
straightforward and true
with nothing to rue
she clears all the hurdles that test her

for Kelli King